Gloucester County in midst of political change

With a surge in population and a red breeze blowing through it, once reliably Democratic Gloucester County is becoming a political battlefield.

Gov. Christie won it in 2009 over Democratic incumbent Jon S. Corzine. Voters elected two Republican freeholders in 2010. In the last two years, 20 elected municipal offices flipped from Democrats to Republicans.

This year, the county's political mettle will be tested further.

On the ballot will be a spate of municipal offices and three seats on the seven-member Board of Chosen Freeholders, which Democrats have controlled since the mid-1980s.

Seats in the county's three legislative districts are up for election as well. District boundaries are being redrawn by the state Apportionment Commission, which hopes to finish in April. Changes could make the difference between safe and competitive seats.

Added to the political struggles is a changing population.

Gloucester County gained 33,615 residents in the last decade, bringing its population to 288,288 and making it the fastest-growing county in New Jersey. Most of the high-growth communities lean Republican.

The new voters and new district boundaries, as well as a national frustration with incumbents, could mean trouble for the most powerful elected Democratic state official: Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a West Deptford resident who helped tighten his party's grip on Gloucester County and who resigned as freeholder director in December.

Though Republicans say Sweeney may be vulnerable, they don't underestimate his name recognition and ability to raise millions in campaign dollars.

However, the state's top Republican - Christie - also has his eye on the county; he headlined a local GOP fund-raiser in October.

Sweeney shrugged off questions about his vulnerability and noted that he had been a top vote-getter for years.

"I take every election like I'm down 30 points, and I work real hard at it," he said. "I'd be up for anyone who wants to take a run at me."

Sweeney and fellow Democrats will be running against a more organized and aggressive GOP than in recent elections.

"Going back two, three years ago and even longer than that, I think, the Democrats were playing against a different Republican organization," Gloucester County Republican chairman Bill Fey said. "Now the varsity team is on the field."

But it is unclear whether Republican leaders around the state plan to take a run at Sweeney.

The county's Democratic chairman, State Sen. Fred Madden, said many of the new residents had moved into affluent areas of Woolwich, Harrison, and East Greenwich and tended to lean Republican.

Median household income in those areas shot over $110,000 from about $80,000, according to the 2010 census. The national median was $62,400.

Many come from Republican areas of Delaware County, Democratic Freeholder Giuseppe Chila said. He is a former mayor of Woolwich, which more than doubled in population last decade, making it the fastest-growing town in New Jersey.

The other expanding communities of East Greenwich, Harrison, and South Harrison voted for President George W. Bush in 2004 and bucked President Obama's blue tide in 2008 to back Arizona Sen. John McCain.

But a town's tendencies can be changed, Chila said. Woolwich was a Republican town in 2002 when he and other Democrats began taking over the local government. Last year, they lost control.

"The wind blows quickly in Woolwich," he said. "It's the times, I think."

A handful of towns, including Woolwich and Wenonah, had more registered Republicans than Democrats before the high-turnout 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton but flipped to the Democratic column.

At least some of those voters seem to be returning to the GOP. They chose the Republicans over the Democrats in last year's razor-close freeholder race.

"The towns that were historically Republican a few years ago are going back that way," said David Ferrucci, a former Franklin Township mayor and the county GOP's campaign director.

But if this does become a lucky year for Republicans, it won't happen without a fight. Political battles in Gloucester County are legend.

Madden, the Democratic chairman, won his Senate seat in 2003 by 63 votes in a race that cost the parties a record $6 million. Sweeney first won a freeholder seat in 1997 in a nail-biter of a race during which Republicans came close to seizing control of the board.